Your Endpoints Are Talking Behind Your Back

For the first time ever, the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2024 found that abusing valid accounts became cybercriminals’ most common entry point into victim environments. In fact, 30 percent of all incidents last year were being executed with valid credentials.  

In the same research, 84 percent of critical infrastructure incidents could have been mitigated by implementing best practices and security fundamentals, such as least-privilege access, patch management, etc.  

With the looming trend of AI, we can’t overlook critical best practices, one of them being the often-underexplored component of endpoint-to-endpoint control.

It’s critical to stop lateral movement between endpoints

It's more important than ever to limit lateral movement from the outside in (starting at your most critical application) and the inside out (starting at the most common area a breach starts) has skyrocketed. Yet, this fundamental component is often overlooked. Endpoint-to-endpoint control provides quick and low-risk security on some of your most vulnerable devices — laptops, VDIs, and workstations.  

Lateral movement is cybersecurity professionals’ worst nightmare. Unfortunately, while endpoint security measures may have been put in place, they can often be focused solely on limiting lateral movement within the device itself or between a user-specific VLAN and other areas. This can fail to limit network movement within these macro environments and allows an attacker to find a device that can help them move to a high-value target.  

The case for endpoint-to-endpoint control

Controlling traffic between endpoints is not just about surveillance; it's also about limiting traffic flow by default. By implementing strict controls on endpoint interactions, organizations can significantly reduce attacker spread and prevent access from escalating into a full-scale breach. This way, an attack using valid credentials won’t have a way to moving around.  

With endpoint segmentation, organizations can move from dividing a network into distinct zones to creating a zone for each individual device. This limits access and controls communication between endpoints to only what is needed.

Zero Trust Segmentation (ZTS) is key to building endpoint segmentation quickly and easily. ZTS enables a consistent approach to microsegmentation across the hybrid attack surface, allowing organizations to see and reduce risk across endpoints as well as the cloud and data centers. ZTS is easy and simple to implement compared to attempting endpoint segmentation with traditional tools.

Illumio Endpoint: Secure endpoint exposure

Illumio Endpoint extends ZTS across your endpoints, addressing the critical challenge of implementing granular restrictions on endpoint-to-endpoint communications.

Illumio Endpoint is simple:

1. See: Begin with providing comprehensive visibility into all network traffic, identifying what exceptions are necessary for maintaining operational continuity.  

2. Draft: With this visibility, confidently establish strict control measures without inadvertently hampering legitimate business activities.

3. Test: Monitor drafted policies before implementing them.

4. Enforce: When you’re confident new policies are ready, roll them out with a single click.

See Illumio Endpoint in action:

Your endpoints are indeed talking behind your back — with the right security tools in place, you can make sure that doesn’t happen. By embracing endpoint-to-endpoint control as a cornerstone of your security posture, you can protect your organization from a breach even  when valid credentials have been stolen.  

Learn more about Illumio Endpoint by contacting us today.